Month: March 2014

Homebrewers are often confused by the terms crystal and caramel malt and are sometimes uncertain as to whether these are basically the same thing and can be used interchangeably, or whether they are quite different animals. Partly this comes from the fact that crystal and caramel malts come in a range of different colors, and that individual products from one maltster may not be identical to those from another producer. They are in fact proprietary products and are often given proprietary names, which only serve to increase the confusion. That’s a pity because when they are properly used they are important cards in the discriminating brewer’s hand. In this story, we’ll talk about how they originated, and what they are, and see if we can’t clear up that confusion.

The first point in this discussion is the fact that these are roasted malts, and the roasting is carried out in a specific manner (there are exceptions as we’ll see later). Crystal malt came first and originated in England, at some time around 1880. The roasting process to produce black malt had been practiced since 1817, when a man by the name of Daniel Wheeler took out a patent on the procedure. Black malt was widely used to replace brown malt in porter brewing, but porter drinking declined during the 19th century as the public developed a taste for pale ales. At the same time original gravities (and therefore alcohol levels) were also falling in Britain, which led to brewers producing lighter, weaker, and less flavorful beers. This trend was further enhanced in 1880 when a new law was introduced which allowed brewers to substitute some base malt with sugar.

So, I presume that some bright maltster saw that there was (or would soon be) a need for a malt additive that could be added in small amounts to improve the body and flavor of pale beers, just as black malt served to give porters and stouts their characteristic flavors. So, since this maltster had already had a roaster, he or she experimented with different levels of roasting and came up with crystal malt. The new product met with approval from brewers and went from strength to strength through to the present as British beer original gravities continued to decrease throughout the 20th century. Crystal malt is now the predominant colored malt used in Britain and is used in most ales brewed there.

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CRAFT breweries may be a big story in the media these days, but they face much tougher challenges than most other small businesses.

Take the rules governing how beer is distributed, known as franchise laws, which were written decades ago and today are being used to limit consumer choice by keeping small and start-up breweries from moving easily into new markets.

Almost every state franchise law demands that breweries sign a strict contract with a single distributor in a state — the so-called three-tiered system. The contracts not only prevent other companies from distributing a company’s beers, but also give the distributor virtual carte blanche to decide how the beer is sold and placed in stores and bars — in essence, the distributor owns the brand inside that state.

This model was enacted in the 1970s, when the industry was a lot different: Back then there were fewer than 50 brewing companies in America and 5,000 distributors. Many small distributors carried beer only from one large brewer, and they needed protection in case the brewer they represented wanted to pull its product.

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Brasserie Dieu du Ciel, St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada

To all the microbreweries out there: OK, I get it. You can put Cascade hops into any beer style you want.

Not content to fill the shelves with thousands of American pale ale and American India pale ale beers that taste like pine and grapefruit, you are now making every style in the world taste like that. These beers should have a label on them that reads, “Rated PG.”

But know this: You are not breaking new ground. You are not being hip. Three thousand breweries before you have made PG-tasting porters, barleywines, weissbiers, imperial stouts, Belgian ales, etc.

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Our own Maria Devan will be glad to see her rating confirmed here…

Even when you’re making a lot of new friends, you should never forget your old ones.

That’s a thought I had last week when I was savoring a Rochefort 10 for the first time in probably several years.

In this column, along with beer news and opinion, I sometimes write about a specific beer itself to let people know what to expect. These are often new brews, or ones that are at least new to my area.

But I sometimes forget that there are thousands of older beers I’ve never written about. Although I have been doing the column for 10 years, that’s still only a little more than 500 columns total. So there is no way to get to them all.

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Profiled by Maria Devan for PGA

This pours murky and brown with a fat head of khaki creamy foam.

A nose of luscious caramel, touch of booze and a bit of raisin and fig. A bit of sweet chocolate on the nose and soft peat.

The taste is generous with malt sweetness. Luscious caramel, molasses, raisin, fig and and earthiness that isn’t any dark malt flavor like coffee or chocolate. It’s soft.

Mouthfeel is full but drinks lightly with plenty of carbonation to tickle. A mysterious drying. At some point in the beer the palate has become dry and you are left to wonder why. Sweetness from alcohol and a bit of alcohol dryness in the finish.

Wonderful.

Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.